ĂGONŎTHĔTAE (ἀγωνοθέται), persons in the Grecian games who decided disputes, and adjudged the prizes to the victors. Originally, the person who instituted the contest and offered the prize was the _Agonothetes_, and this continued to be the practice in those games which were instituted by kings or private persons. But in the great public games, such as the Isthmian, Pythian, &c., the _Agonothetae_ were either the representatives of different states, as the Amphictyons at the Pythian games, or were chosen from the people in whose country the games were celebrated. During the flourishing times of the Grecian republics the Eleans were the _Agonothetae_ in the Olympic games, the Corinthians in the Isthmian games, the Amphictyons in the Pythian games, and the Corinthians, Argives, and inhabitants of Cleonae in the Nemaean games. The _Agonothetae_ were also called _Aesymnetae_ (αἰσυμνῆται), _Agonarchae_ (ἀγωνάρχαι), _Agonodicae_ (ἀγωνοδίκαι), _Athlothetae_ (ἀθλοθέται), _Rhabduchi_ (ῥαβδοῦχοι), or _Rhabdonomi_ (ῥαβδονόμοι, from the staff which they carried as an emblem of authority), _Brabeis_ (βραβεῖς), and _Brabeutae_ (βραβευταί). ĂGŎRA (ἀγορά) properly means an assembly of any kind, and is usually employed by Homer to designate the general assembly of the people. The Agora seems to have been considered an essential part of the constitution of the early Grecian states. It was usually convoked by the king, but occasionally by some distinguished chieftain, as, for example, by Achilles before Troy. The king occupied the most important seat in these assemblies, and near him sat the nobles, while the people stood or sat in a circle around them. The people appear to have had no right of speaking or voting in these assemblies, but merely to have been called together to hear what had been already agreed upon in the council of the nobles, and to express their feelings as a body. The council of the nobles is called _Boulé_ (βουλή) and _Thoöcus_ (θόωκος), and sometimes even _Agora_. Among the Athenians, the proper name for the assembly of the people was _Ecclesia_ (ἐκκλησία), and among the Dorians _Halia_ (ἁλία). The term Agora was confined at Athens to the assemblies of the phylae and demi. The name Agora was early transferred from the assembly itself to the place in which it was held; and thus it came to be used for the market-place, where goods of all descriptions were bought and sold. Hence it answers to the Roman _forum_.